


What Lies in the Past

by SkyLeaf



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Genre: Angst, F/M, Forgiveness, Reconciliation, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-11-07 16:08:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20820098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkyLeaf/pseuds/SkyLeaf
Summary: Zelda would have loved to be able to go back to a time before Link had left her and Hyrule behind. She knew that it was a hopeless dream, something that could never be, and yet, she dreamt.However, though the past will always remain unchangeable, the future is only a day away.





	What Lies in the Past

**Author's Note:**

> A little fanfic I wrote for the "Future"-prompt of Zelink week since I adore Zelink in Spirit Tracks. There is just something so sweet about their interactions in that game, you know?

When the guard entered her study, only pausing for a moment to bow before informing he of how an engineer was currently waiting for her in the throne room, Zelda was, if only for a moment, thrown back to the last time that had happened, her heart skipping a single beat before she was able to close her hand around her quill, feeling how the it pressed against the palm of her hand, reminding her that it was fine now. Outside, through the window that allowed the sunlight to enter her study, she could see the Tower of Spirits standing tall, overlooking the country.

It was fine, they were all fine.

If the guard had noticed how her smile was slightly less sincere when she turned around to face him, how the white colour of her knuckles gave away how tightly she had gripped the quill only moments before, he was kind enough not to mention it, instead nodding in the general direction of the throne room. “He said that he knew you,” the guard told her, the slight pause halfway through the sentence letting her know how little he believed that claim, surely already preparing himself for having to go back to tell their guest to leave at once, “and since you had told me that—” the next words seemed almost physically painful for him to say, at least if the way he had to clear his throat to continue was any indication, “that you know someone who might be able to fit the description of ‘engineer’, I made the decision to let him stay until you would be informed of his presence.”

Placing the quill back down onto the table, pausing for a second to make sure that the ink would not drop onto the paper underneath it, Zelda nodded at him. “Yes, thank you. I will go to see him immediately.”

A small twitch ran from the guard’s mouth towards his cheek, but he did not object to that, instead simply standing up a bit straighter, making his already impeccable posture even more perfect. “Shall I accompany you, princess?”

“No, thank you,” Zelda said, at once both punctuating and softening the words with a low chuckle, “I believe that will not be needed.”

Before the guard had the chance to protest, she had left her study, hurrying through the hallways of the castle to get to the throne room. Already, even after so many years had passed, Zelda could feel how the familiar sense of adventure that had accompanied her and Link during those weeks they had spent traversing the kingdom came rushing back to her, and while she had grown up in the years since she had last since him, having learnt how to govern, how to make the people around her somewhat forget about how she had barely been more than a child when she had first taken the throne until Teacher and a handful of the guards seemed to be the only ones who still treated her like a child, in that moment, Zelda could not deny that she longed for that feeling again, to simply be able to follow Link to the train to let it take them into the unknown.

She was looking at the past through rose-coloured glasses, Zelda knew that, and with how there were still times where the nightmares would wake her up at night, what she wanted was not to be able to return to that time. Rather, it was to, even for just a moment, be able to forget about anything but the way the sound of the train moving through the land would make her heart beat faster.

Zelda arrived at the door without anyone having stopped her to ask where she was going.

That was another thing she loved about the freedom she had achieved after having realised how the key to making those around her view her as a competent ruler was to act that way. Now, she could more often than not leave the castle without a single guard stopping her to question her about whether or not it would not be wiser to bring someone along to protect her in case anything would happen.

Supressing a sigh she was not sure why had appeared, pressing against her resolve not to show any signs of weakness, Zelda placed one hand on each of the double doors and pushed them open before the guards she already knew she would find on the other side of them got the chance to do it for her.

The moment she entered the throne room and saw the person waiting for her, all sentimental thoughts about their shared past disappeared in an instant, as Zelda froze, unable to do anything but to try to comprehend the fact that he was really there.

In a way, she now knew that she had not fully allowed herself to believe that he might finally have returned. After all, there were so many other engineers in the kingdom, so many young men who might have looked enough like Link for the guard to confuse them with each other. However, as Zelda let her gaze rest on the kneeling figure in front of her, she knew that, finally, after so many years where they had only been able to send each other an occasional letter, Link had finally returned.

Realising that she had already been quiet for far too long, the confused look she received from the guards standing next to her letting her know that, while it almost felt like it should have been obvious to everyone what this all meant for her, to them, the queen had been rendered speechless by someone who was practically a stranger, Zelda cleared her throat. “You may rise.” her voice echoed in the large room, and from the tiny smile that flickered across Link’s face as he stood up to look at her, Zelda could tell how she had not been the only one to notice it. Despite that, she made herself stay, trying her best to ignore the way she could not keep her voice from quivering slightly, a warning that she would have to hurry if she wanted to make sure that the guards would not be able to see how the tears of joy were already making her eyes sting slightly.

“Princess,” Link nodded at her, and no matter how much Zelda tried to grow used to the thought that he somehow managed to make it seem like he had only left a day ago, there was simply something so strange about it all that she could not keep a high-pitched chuckle from escaping her at how he had been gone for so long that he was now using the wrong title to address her.

“Oh, I am sorry,” she said, the moment the guards in the room turned to look at her, the shock and growing concern evident on their faces, “I appeared to have… never mind.” somehow, it seemed that the spirits had willed it so that, rather than this meeting being like their first, it would now be Zelda who would find herself at a loss for words, desperately trying not to let it show how she did not know what to say, think, or do. But she had not spent years trying to convince the people around her not to doubt her authority for nothing, so, taking a deep breath, Zelda once more looked at Link, letting just enough cold distance seep into her voice. “On behalf of the people of New Hyrule, allow me to express how happy we are now that we know that you have returned home safely.”

Perhaps Link noticed the barely hidden sting to her words, for her winched slightly, seemingly at once realising how, while inside the castle, they had to adopt quite different roles than those they had found during their adventures. “I doubt it will be able to rival how grateful I am for being back again.” Zelda did not fail to notice the little grin that crossed his face and the invitation it held, but she still hesitated, unsure of how to act, instead making Link continue. “No matter where I was, my mind would always fly back to y—to this country.”

Above her, Zelda could almost feel how her grandmother was looking down at her, the light that poured in through the window casting a shadow of colours over her.

What would she have said if she could see her now, unable to figure out what to say even now when Link had finally returned? From what Zelda had been able to find in the history books, Tetra had experienced almost the same thing, given how the young boy dressed in green who had been mentioned a few times in the beginning of the books had suddenly disappeared shortly after Tetra had first arrived in what would later become the capital of New Hyrule, almost making it seem like he had disappeared from their lives without a trace.

But, as Zelda stood there, facing Link again, she was almost entirely sure that the boy from the history books had not been erased from memory so quickly, not with how her grandmother had always got that mournful look in her eyes when she would look at the guards walking through the castle, choosing to spend the last years of her life in a little house in Papuchia Village, the decision to leave the castle seeming like it had been caused by the uniforms the guards would wear more than anything else. But, if things had been different, if the boy had returned, what would Tetra have done? Zelda was sure that her grandmother would have let him know exactly how angry she was with him and how he had left, but as she tried to imagine herself doing the same, she was forced to realise that she was not her grandmother, and that, despite how tempting the thought of showing Link how much it had hurt her when he had seemingly decided to forget about Anjean’s last words to him about how they had to help each other to rebuild New Hyrule, Zelda would not be able to stay angry with him.

So, masking a sigh by lifting her hand up to cover her mouth, Zelda decided to extend an offer of trying to rekindle their friendship to him, making sure that her voice would not betray her and reveal her emotions as she spoke. “In that case, I assume that you might also have missed the beauty New Hyrule has to offer.” the way a blush crept over Link’s face at that was almost enough for her to forget about her plan, but Zelda soon succeeded in making herself stop pondering what it had meant, instead clearing her throat once. “I would like to invite you to accompany me on a stroll through the gardens.”

The moment where it seemed that they might finally have been able to momentarily return to the easy friendship they had formed as children passed, Link glancing towards the guards for a second, the way he quickly looked back at her revealing how he had not intended for her to see it, before he nodded. “Of course, princess.”

Again, he finished by stating the title she had worn the last time they had met, but as Zelda stepped towards him, signalling for the guards not to follow her as she began to lead him through the labyrinthine corridors of the castle, she decided not to correct the mistake. Even though their reunion had been unlike how she had dreamt of it being, Link acting like he barely knew her, like the two of them had not fought side by side in an attempt to stop Maladus from being able to unleash his anger at the world, perhaps there was still a chance that they might be able to return to the atmosphere of the train if she simply tried her best to forget about how much they had both changed since the last time they had seen each other.

Stepping out into the courtyard, Zelda was for a moment convinced that she had got the Link she had come to know and love back.

As he stepped forward, a look of amazement making his eyes sparkle when he turned around, it seemed that, in that moment, he had completely forgot about rules and etiquette. Or, at least, it seemed that way until the smile disappeared and he looked down towards the spot between his boots. “Forgive me,” he mumbled, “I completely forgot.”

“There is nothing to apologise for,” Zelda assured him. But even as she said it, she could feel how she did not quite mean it. For while Zelda could not have cared less about how Link had undoubtedly broken some ancient, unwritten rule by walking in front of her, the thought of how he was so quick to apologise for that, for some minor thing, while completely failing to acknowledge the fact that he had left her behind only a little month after they had returned to the castle, Zelda having been ready to once more face the responsibilities that came with her title, so sure that it would be as Anjean had said, that Link would be by her side, that she had only truly realised that he was gone several months after he had come to say goodbye to her, practically dragging her out from a meeting to ramble about how Niko had used his last breath to tell him about how his grandfather had left the kingdom, travelling south to search for a purpose, was enough to make her blood boil.

Link, seemingly still not realising how she was trying her best to ignore the urge to do something, to cry, to yell, to demand an explanation for how he could have left her like that, ignoring how Anjean had told him to help her, sent her a smile. “Well, in that case, I am relieved to hear that,” he said, small crinkles appearing around the corners of his eyes as he laughed at her.

And that, the fact that he truly did not seem to realise how many days she had spent waiting for him to return, so sure that his journey would only last a few months at most, was what finally made it all become too much for her, making Zelda unable to stop the torrent of words after she had let it begin. “Why are you even here now, Link?” she asked, and perhaps it should have made her feel bad to see Link’s smile disappear, instead being replaced with a hesitant expression and a crease between his eyebrows, but in that moment, all that mattered to Zelda was how she had to get answers, and so, she continued. “You left New Hyrule, you left the promise you made when you took my hand that day, you left everyone behind when you disappeared!” the accusation of how he had left her as well was left unsaid, but from how Link looked at her, something indecipherable flickering across his face, gone just as quickly as it had appeared, Zelda knew that he had understood it. She forced herself to take a breath, somehow managing to convince herself that it was to allow her heart to slow down a little and that it had nothing to do with how the sight of Link looking more and more regretful made her heart ache. “You left and for what? To go search for a grandfather because Niko had told you about him? Was that really the reason you left or was that simply what you thought you could say to me without hurting my feelings? For if that was the case, then let me tell you that it did hurt to know that you would leave so quickly after having restored the transport system.”

She was coming dangerously close to crying, Zelda could feel that, the familiar sense of the very top of her nose tingling a bit being a sure sign that, in a moment, the tears would begin to gather near the corners of her eyes. Using the breeze that swept past them, pushing a strand of hair out of place, as an excuse to reach up towards her face to shove the lock of hair aside, Zelda quickly wiped the tears away. Her grandmother had not told her the stories of how she had once been a pirate, travelling the globe with the rest of her crew, only for Zelda to now cry because Link had left her. She might not be a pirate, but Zelda had been raised with the stories of the dangers of the sea, the courage that had allowed Tetra to prosper, and the friendships that had made her move forwards into the unknown. There was no reason for her to cry now.

“Zelda, I…” Link began, and if he had returned only a few years before, back when Zelda had still been so busy feeling angry and betrayed that she had been able to not realise just how much it had hurt to see him leave, she would surely have told him to refer to her by her title. But now, she was just glad that he at least bothered to look up at her when he continued, “I know that you might not necessarily believe me, but my grandfather was really the only reason I left. Had it not been for what Niko had told me, the fact that I knew I had to find out more about him, I know that I would have stayed here in the castle with you.”

He added the last part almost like he did not think about it, and as Zelda looked at him, she was forced to admit that, perhaps that was because he really had not been forced to stop and carefully consider every word. Perhaps those years where they had been separated had given her the time to allow the dreams to seep into her memories until she was unable to realise what had really happened and what had never been able to become more than what it had been when they had parted. But still, although Zelda knew that she should be angry, she could still not help but hope that perhaps the memories she had of how they had been fumbling, trying their best to express what had slowly begun to form between them in words, might have been real.

But, somehow mustering up the strength to shove all thoughts of how she had once been so blind to believe that they would be able to stay with each other for the rest of their lives aside, Zelda forced herself to stand up straighter, willing the authority she held to bring the sharp edge to her voice as she looked at Link. “Then what did you find?”

“Uh,” for some reason, Link did not appear to be entirely comfortable with the question. But maybe he realised how their relationship—Zelda finding it difficult to know exactly what word she could use to describe it even now after so many years—had been weakened by the time that had passed without them seeing one another, how it would not be able to survive if he told her that he did not want to answer, for, clearly trying his best to hide his discomfort, he continued, “not much, I am afraid. I suppose that most of it might be due to how I knew very little about him. Niko told me his name and how he had overheard him telling Tetra that he would go back to his home to ask his little sister to come back to New Hyrule with him, but other than that, I had no idea what or whom I was looking for when I left you here.” at least Link seemed to regret it now, looking straight past her, his gaze landing on the rosebush next to her face.

Perhaps that was why Zelda found herself unable not to try to help him, for she soon stepped towards him, somehow able to let her voice become lighter, less bitter. “But did you learn more about him?”

Link was silent for a moment, and Zelda could see how, if he did not stop soon, the way he kept digging his foot into the ground beneath them was going to become an issue that Teacher would no doubt bring to her, requiring for her to figure out what they could do, signing countless of laws just to be able to fill up the hole again.

However, just as Zelda was ready to tell him to stop and just tell her what he was thinking, Link let out a sigh and met her gaze. “Well, I found out that I was named after him. His name was Link as well—apparently, he married someone somewhere along his journey, and when he eventually continued his search, my grandmother did not want to come with him, so she travelled to New Hyrule with my mother.”

The little sigh Link clearly tried to hide, made Zelda feel how her heart sank to the floor, as the thought that perhaps it was a sign that Link would have preferred for his grandparents to have stayed together so that he would not have had to search for his grandfather, being willing to sacrifice the life she had hoped they could find here to instead gain knowledge about his family, pressed against her anger. Still, she did not interrupt him, to afraid that he would become silent again if she did, so, while she could not deny that she wanted answers, Zelda let Link continue.

“I don’t know if he ever found his sister or if he simply realised that he had still not discovered what he wanted to do with his life, for when I arrived at Outset Island, no matter how many people I tried to ask, no one could remember him having ever returned home after he had left. But I did find out one thing about him that I believe you will find interesting.”

The way he allowed the hope to shine through, making his face appear slightly younger, told Zelda how the silent question for her to ask him to elaborate was more desperate than what Link wanted her to see. However, right then, Zelda would have lied if she had tried to claim that she did not to want to know more, so while she could undoubtedly have tried to make him feel even halfway as foolish as she had when she had realised how he would not return, Zelda did not, instead cocking her head slightly. “And what is that?”

“Well, you see,” Link began, unable to keep a smile from forming, “my grandfather did not just travel to New Hyrule without his family because he wanted to leave them behind. No, he had met someone, and the two of them had then together built a dream that would require for them to journey into the unknown.”

“What do you mean? New Hyrule has never been unknown to those who live on the islands; ever since Tetra first arrived here, there have been ships sailing between the islands and the mainland.”

“Yes, ever since Tetra arrived here,” Link echoed, his tone of voice making it obvious to Zelda how he expected for her to already know what he meant.

But maybe it was because part of her still could not believe that he was finally there with her again, or perhaps Link had simply been gone for so long that they were no longer able to guess what the other was thinking the way they had once done, but fact was that Zelda did not know what it meant.

Her confusion must have shown on her face, for Link’s expression soon turned apologetic as he shook his head, “sorry, I thought that—well, I don’t know what I thought, but, no matter what, the reason why my grandfather did not know about New Hyrule when he left his sister and grandmother was that he left with Tetra. He was a part of the group that followed her into the unknown.”

The world spun around her. Here Link was, telling her that his grandfather had supposedly known her grandmother, had helped her, only to then disappear without a trace, without being mentioned in a single history book.

Had it not been for how Zelda knew that Link would never lie to her, not about anything so important, she might have thought that it was all a story he was trying to make her believe was real, but the look on his face, the way he maintained eye contact even as Zelda could tell how the doubt was evident on her face assured her that, even if the story was nothing but a story, he truly did believe what he was telling. But it did not make any sense. With how she had known about Niko for far longer than she had been willing to admit the first time she and Link had visited him in Aboda Village, how many times the history books mentioned the fearless pirates who had been prepared to follow Tetra no matter what, Zelda could simply not believe that Link’s grandfather really could have been a part of all that without them having found out, without everyone having known about him and known that he had a family and a grandson.

“But,” Zelda said, the words almost blurring together to form a single, incomprehensible sound, “how? How could he have been a part of Tetra’s crew of pirates? We have several books on that subject, detailing exactly who those pirates were and who their descendants are.”

For some reason, the question seemed to be the thing that finally made Link avert his gaze, once more looking down towards the tips of his boots, like he would be able to find the answers to every question in the world engraved into the leather.

“The reason why he is not mentioned in any of those books might be that, from what Niko told me about the time before he left, he and Tetra had fought all the time. She did not want him to go, you see. Niko said that she tried to argue that they could either send a message to my grandfather’s sister and let her choose whether or not she wanted to accompany the messenger when she would have to sail back to New Hyrule or let him join the crew of one of the ships that were constantly sailing between the islands and New Hyrule during that time, trying to bring everyone who wanted to come to the new kingdom there, but that my grandfather had been adamant that he would have to leave to go ask his sister personally and that he would have to do it alone. Apparently Tetra tried her best to appear angry, but from what Niko told me, she just wanted for him to stay with her, even when she yelled at him that if he left, she would prefer if he just stayed away.” Link shrugged, but the gesture did not hold the nonchalance Zelda usually associated with it, Link’s movement seeming so tense to her that she could almost not understand how he was able to try to mask it. “I think that might be why he is not mention in the history books—he left soon after the birth of New Hyrule, and with how he had hurt those who might have tried to make sure that his legacy would continue, there was no one who really did want to remember him.”

At once, Zelda remembered the one time where she had finally gathered the courage to ask her grandmother why the guards all wore green despite how they were not patrolling in the forest. Then, she had been too busy listening to her grandmother’s tales to think about why she looked sad for too long, but now, Zelda could not help but wonder, if perhaps there was a connection between the guards’ uniforms, the boy dressed in green who had only been mentioned in the beginning of the history books, and now Link’s grandfather who shared his name.

Trying her best to hide just how much the different answers she was already picturing in her head meant to her, Zelda fixed Link with a single stare. “Well, I can understand why my grandmother would not want to be reminded of him every day.” even as she said it, the question of why Tetra would have chosen the design for the uniform seemed determined to interrupt her, constantly finding new ways to reach her, but Zelda simply fought harder to shut it out, instead continuing. “I mean, he left, without ever giving her any real explanation for it, leaving for a quest that should only have taken a few months, but instead meant that he never returned again.”

From the way Link winched, Zelda could tell that he had not failed to notice the real meaning of her words. But where she would have sworn just that morning that seeing how the separation had affected him, that she was not the only one who had been hurt by his sudden departure, Zelda now wanted for nothing more than to be able to forget about it all, to let the betrayal—for despite how she might want to convince herself that she could forgive him now, if that was what she wanted to do, to Zelda, it was still very much a betrayal—stay in the past where it belonged.

“Link, I am sorry, that was too harsh, I—”

“No,” Link interrupted her, holding up his hands to signal for her that he needed to finish what he had to say, “no, it really wasn’t. I did deserve that.”

As he looked back up, it almost seemed that his eyes shone, but it only took Zelda a second to see that it was because he was crying, tears streaming down his face as he gestured first towards her, before seemingly being unable to continue, instead throwing his hands up towards the sky. They fell back against his sides moments later, Link seemingly having lost all energy in the span of only a few heartbeats.

When he spoke once more, Zelda could hear how it was not only a matter of his limbs seeming heavier; his voice seemed tired as well. However, he continued nonetheless. “While I tried to find out more about my grandfather and my family, I could not help but wonder what could have made him make the decision to leave everything—New Hyrule, his friends, your grandmother—behind. If he had left to go find his sister and grandmother, then I would have been able to understand it, but since no one could remember him having ever returned to the island, he could not have gone there. It simply did not make sense to me, not when he had had everything, but had decided to abandon it all to seemingly continue his search for something even he did not know what was. It was all a mystery to me, until, one day, I finally realised why he had done it.”

A slight twitch made Link’s arm shake, and, almost without thinking about it, Zelda reached out to take his hand, hoping that it would have the same effect as those times where she had tried to do the same, only for her hand to pass straight through him.

It was only when Link looked up at her, a combination of confusion, joy, and something she did not quite know what meant making his eyes grow a bit brighter, that Zelda realised her mistake, and by then, it was already too late for her to even attempt to hide how she had dreamt about being able to do this more times than she would have liked to admit during those past years, so, rather than withdrawing her hand, she smiled at him. “And why was that?”

“He was afraid.” Link paused her a moment, and had it not been for how Zelda was already looking at him so intensely that it felt like she was seeing him for the first time, she might not have seen how his gaze flickered down to rest on their hands. “He was afraid because he realised that, for the first time in his life, his dreams might be within reach, and he did not know how to cope with that, so he simply left, making it so that he would never be able to rest since he knew that, no matter what he would do, he would still not have found true happiness.” looking up, Link met her gaze once more, and Zelda was shocked to see the pain hiding right behind his eyes, how he was silently begging her to understand what he would say. “My grandfather had possessed an extraordinary amount of courage, but in the end, he had chosen the cowardly path. And I—it was when I realised that, when I saw how he had allowed it to ruin his life and make it so that he would never be able to stay with anyone, that I knew I had to return home again.”

Her heart, having always been the most treacherous part of her, skipped a beat, making it so that Zelda could not help but allow herself to lean in closer towards him as she asked the question that seemed to refuse to let her forget about it. “And what was that?”

With how he was looking at her in that moment, Zelda was almost certain that she already knew the answer to that, but she still stayed silent, waiting for Link to confirm it.

“I—when I saw how my grandfather had been frightened by the idea of finally having found true happiness, having realised how he was in love with his friend, I could see how I was doing the same thing, how I had already begun the process the moment I had first noticed how my feelings for you were not as platonic as I had tried to tell myself they were, choosing to leave you in an attempt to find out more about myself and my past rather than doing what I already knew would have been the right thing and gone to talk with you. But while I realised all of that only a few months after I had first left, coming to terms with it the moment I realised why I kept thinking about you even though I had been the one to make the decision to leave you. I, uh, I…” although she already knew what he would say, her frantically beating heart almost begging her to do something to make the moment reach her faster, Zelda was unable to do much else than to look at him as Link swallowed, the tears already having stopped when he added, “I realised that I—that I was in love with you while I was stuck on a tiny island in the middle of the ocean after the man who had been kind enough to let me borrow his boat had been forced to turn around to gather more supplies. There, in the little week it took before he returned, when I had no way of knowing if he really had any intentions of returning or if he had perhaps decided to let me starve to death, I found out that the reason why I still could not stop thinking about you, not even after I had travelled halfway across the globe in my search for answers, was that I was in love with you. And I know that it is too late now. I know that I should have told you, I should have told you the moment I realised or, at the very least, when I was planning to leave, so that I would have given you a chance to know the truth before I disappeared. I know that, and I cannot apologise enough for all those years where I wasn’t brave enough to return home and tell you.”

“You were in love with me?” Zelda repeated the words, feeling how the revelation made her mind spin, making so that, while she was rationally able to acknowledge that she had indeed heard what he had said, it was like she had not properly registered the words.

“Yes,” a hint of a smile made Link look much younger, looking more like the person she had grown close to during those weeks where they had at first been forced to help each other, before it had grown to become a friendship, “although I suppose it would be more correct to say that I still am in love with you, for those feelings did not disappear just because I returned home. Quite the opposite in fact.” it seemed like he suddenly remembered something, a sharp inhale bringing an end to both the smile and the softness of his words as he let go of her hand. “And I know it is too late now. You don’t have to tell me, I already know and understand completely. My reasons for coming here to see you were not to attempt to make you forgive me—I just thought that after everything I had already done, you at least deserved to know the truth, the reason why I disappeared like that.”

As Zelda’s hand felt back to rest against her side, she could almost not understand what she was hearing. With how many nights her dreams had consisted of this exact scenario, the moment it finally happened, Zelda might almost have been led to believe that she was sleeping, that, in just a moment, she would wake up once more to find that Link had never returned, that she would have to face another day with the knowledge that he had chosen to abandon her and the last piece of advice they had received from Anjean. That was, she might have been able to believe that, had it not been for how Link did not seem to be able to look at her, the regret making it so that the air around him almost seemed to darken, imitating his feelings. Although she had at first wished she would get the chance to yell at him, to demand an explanation, the days where she had wanted for that to happen had passed a long time ago. Had this been a dream, the darkness would have disappeared long ago, allowing the sun to shine through instead.

So, careful not to do anything that might break the fragile sense of something new growing between them, Zelda reached out, silently asking him for permission as she took his hand.

When he did not react, neither pulling his hand back towards himself or moving closer to her, Zelda decided that it was all she could have hoped for, and tried her best to allow the countless of hours she had spent pondering the questions of why he had left her, what he was doing now, and when he would return over the years to make their way into her voice when she smiled at him. “You don’t have to ask for my forgiveness, Link, I am already giving it to you.”

She had not dared to hope for him to accept that, but even then, the way Link shook his head, a strand of hair falling in front of his face as he looked at her, made her wish that she could simply know what he needed to hear to understand how she was not trying to be self-sacrificing by forgiving him, how it was actually incredibly selfish of her.

“I can’t ask you to do that—” he began, but the combination of his broken voice and how he appeared to not quite have understood what she had just said made Zelda unable to stay silent, interrupting him before he got the chance to finish.

“Then it is lucky that I am not forgiving you because I feel pressured to do so, but rather because I am selfish and want for you to become part of my life again, just like I want to become part of your life once more.” her voice was sharper than what Zelda had intended, but given how it at least made Link stay silent for long enough for her to take a deep breath, figuring out what she had to say next, Zelda was not able to truly feel guilty about it. “Link, I… we have already been through so much. I don’t want to lose you just because we were both fools when we were younger. The mistakes we made back then… can’t we let them stay in the past? We were quite different people back then, I mean, do you remember when I yelled at you in the Tower of Spirits?”

That finally earned her a chuckle, a little of the sadness in Link’s eyes disappearing when he laughed. “For some reason, I am not so sure that you would not still do that if you had a good reason to.”

“You might be right about that,” Zelda admitted, enjoying the short moment, how it felt almost like she remembered the time from before Link had left, for a heartbeat before she shook her head, returning to the conversation she knew they had already delayed for far too long, “but to return to my previous point, what do you say to the idea of letting the past be the past? We could give ourselves the chance to journey into the future, together, without all of that to hold us back.”

Zelda held her breath, instead watching Link, taking in how several emotions flickered across his face at once, a mess of anger, sadness, joy, regret, and fear making it impossible for her to guess what he would say when he finally let go of her hand.

For a moment, she thought that he would let her hand fall back against her side again to turn around and leave her, but the next second, she felt how he reached out to let his fingers brush against her cheek, barely touching her, the gesture as light as a feather when the joy finally seemed to win the fight, a smile spreading across his face, only broken when he answered. “I—I would love that very much.”

“So would I.”

Zelda did not tell him any of the other thoughts that flew through her mind, how she had waited for him to return every day since the moment he had left, how she had spent the first week practically unable to sense anything around her, having felt like she lived in an entirely different world, the distance between herself and those around her being so great she had not been able to see them, how she was in love with him. But there was no need for it, not anymore.

As Link reached out to pick a flower from the bush next to him, the way he quickly brushed her hair away from her face to place the flower over her ear where the tiara made it easier to hold the stem in place as Link let go of the flower making it so that Zelda was barely able to continue breathing, she knew that they would have more time to talk about everything they had yet to tell each other later. For now, she was content with simply strolling through the gardens with Link at her side, and so, that was what they did.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I know that the various endings all implied that Link stayed, but, well… I wanted to write some angst, and I wanted to write about the reasons Niko was in the game while the Link from Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass wasn't, so I decided that he might have left at a later moment :)


End file.
